Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/02/04 07:29:54
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I gave up going to Applebee's years ago after having too many bad experiences at various locations. Bad & indifferent service, low quality food (and this is including free meals there via holiday gift cards). I do frequent the occasional chain, but whenever possible I do like to give the local restaurateurs my business.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/02/04 10:09:50
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kozel

FriedClamFanaticI'll do their appetizers..if it's the only place around. I always figured it was the 20-something gals and the 60-something guys......with the 30+ guys waiting in the wings (cheap, but hopeful)

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/02/06 23:14:09
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OK, I eat at chain restaurants, and I find them to be mostly OK. But I tried two different Appleby's, and am not at all tempted to go back to one. The first one was one of those, "would you like some food with your salt?" places. When one opened up walking (well, by New York City standards) from my house, my wife and I decided to give it a try, well, at least after giving it a few months to get its act together. We went there, and the tableware was filthy. We pointed it out to the manager, who got us fresh tableware, and that was it. Not even an apology. The food there was not even up to Chili's/TGI Friday's standards, although it wasn't bad. Certainly not good enough to give them another chance.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/02/07 10:26:13
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I am not an Applebee's fan at all. I have one walking distance from my office and I can count on one hand the number of times I have been there for lunch in the last 5 years. We will occasionally go for a beer after work and a few of the appetizers are ok and the beer is cold so that's tolerable. I am not against ever going to chains but I find others in the same category to be better like Chili's, Max and Erma's, and Champp's. If we are going to eat at a chain my preference is for the Italian ones like Carabba's or Bravo.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/02/07 18:08:27
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An Applebee's opened near me about 10 years ago. Shortly after it opened I went with my kids (who were in thier early & mid teens then) while my wife was visiting her sister in Texas. The food was good enough and the service was very attentive. I was impressed, promised my wife we'd go soon when she got back.

A few weeks later we returned. I guess the HandsOn Management period had ended. We stood around for 10 minutes waiting to be seated. Waited in our booth for another 10 minutes before we were handed menus, ordered 4 sodas from the server who said she's be back with our sodas in a couple of minutes and she'd take our order. That was the last we saw of her. After another 10 minutes we got up and left. We certainly would have complained to the host or somebody before leaving, but amazingly, there was absolutely no one at the host station or anywhere nearby. We've never been back.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/03/29 08:08:50
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I think that is probably another secret to their success, that it does sell Ok to decent food for whatever they charge for it, and that they do a good bar business, with good prices for alcohol. Obviously local people run and work in the restaurant and it is probably popular because of that. I will also say again that I think Applebees does well with the travelers off the highway and being near hotels and whatnot. I remember the Applebees which was across the street from a huge Hilton hotel in Jackson, Mississippi (on County Line Rd.)

Applebees, or other chains of that flavor are not bad places to work for young(-ish) high school and college aged people and probably a good place to break in as a bartender. I am the OP and I never said anything bad about Applebees, but I have never ever when I was hungry and wanted to eat out, to eat there. There were just too many options, either in the chains or locally. Besides, this was Mississippi, where there is actually a state law requiring all people over 18 to know how to cook a delicious down home meal. Those who cannot are subject to fines and prison time. Really, look it up.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/03/29 22:25:31
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senor boogie woogie

I will also say again that I think Applebees does well with the travelers off the highway and being near hotels and whatnot. I remember the Applebees which was across the street from a huge Hilton hotel in Jackson, Mississippi (on County Line Rd.)

This is certainly the case in my neck if the woods with Applebees.

Winchester, VA...the Applebees is on Route 50 west of town. There is a Courtyard by Marriott nearby and while that helps another factor is that if one heads west into West Virginia the Applebees, IHOP and Sonic are the last of such places all the way until the Clarksburg/Bridgeport area in central West Virginia . That is a good 3 perhaps 4 hour drive between the two cities. It has been years since I have taken that drive. Romney the biggest town between the two cities is pretty much limited to fast food like McDonalds and local mom & pop restaurants.

Martinsburg, WV...Applebees is located within walking distance of a Days Inn, Holiday Inn and a Hampton Inn.

Front Royal, VA...Hampton Inn is nearby as well as a very large Holiday Inn.

Charles Town, WV....Their Applebees is located not only near several hotels and motels but also within walking distance of the huge Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races as well and since the restaurants inside the casino are quite expensive such as The Final Cut Steakhouse ( my husband says they are just as pricey as Ruth Chris ) not too mention Hollywood still allows smoking inside. Result. the Applebees do get quite a bit of the casino crowds who don't want fast food and do not want to bother walking into a crowd of smokers just to get something to eat.

Re:What is the secret of Applebees success?2013/03/31 10:12:59
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I'm changing my tune about Applebees a little bit. My 88-year-old father-in-law loves chain restaurants, and we've taken him to lunch in a couple of Applebees in Staten Island, NY, near where he's currently living. The food was chain restaurant quality (good, not great), but the places were clean, and the management and staff were friendly and attentive, especially to a fussy elderly man. I have come to the conclusion that the standards in Applebees restaurants are not as uniform as they should be, and that whether they are typical chain restaurants or sub-par ones depends on their individual management.